


Tintype

by vaguenotion



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: 7K AU, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Minor Injuries, Pre-Hugo/Varian, Team Bonding, not proof-read, varian and the seven kingdoms - Freeform, yong is an angel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:07:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28701924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaguenotion/pseuds/vaguenotion
Summary: Hugo and Varian return to camp one night, covered in soot. Because they sort of, maybe, absolutely burned a bandit camp to the ground. And Varian absolutely got bit by a dog.But it was for a good cause!
Comments: 14
Kudos: 70





	Tintype

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Widowfics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Widowfics/gifts).



> This is a return gift for Widowfics, for the oneshot they wrote me! They had requested some Seven Kingdoms AU with a bit of hurt/comfort, for flavor.
> 
> I'm not super well-versed in this AU. I think Varian is supposed to have a donkey? Oh well. No donkey's to be found here. Just a couple'a dumb teens and Hugo's repressed feelings for Varian. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Technically, the bandit camp burning down was  _ not _ his fault.

In fact, Varian was entirely confident that he was not to blame for anything that had happened that night, no matter how firmly Nuru insisted to the contrary. They had been faced with a problem, and Varian had fixed it. He could not be held accountable if his solution triggered secondary actions from another party. (And yes, this  _ was  _ the hill he was going to die on, no matter what counter argument Nuru provided. She had not been at the bandit camp. She could not definitively prove anything.)

“If you don’t stop moving out of my reach,” Nuru was saying, an unspecified threat hanging in her words. She reached again for his arm and pulled it back into the light, drawing a hiss of pain from the back of Varian’s mouth. 

“You wanted me to point at the map, I need hands to do that,” he replied hotly, deliberately keeping his eyes turned away from his arm as she carefully pressed another smear of medicine into the collection of puncture wounds.

“You have two hands, Varian, use the other one.” 

He opened his mouth to reply, something sassy and irritable on the tip of his tongue, when the small voice in the back of his head caught up to him and told him not to. Instead, he pulled a deep breath into his lungs, and then another, and another still, making an active effort to calm down.

Nuru did not deserve his bad attitude, no matter how angry she was outwardly being. In an abstract sort of way, he understood where she was coming from: one minute she was falling asleep under the stars, and the next, Yong was shaking her awake and stammering about bandits and cabin fires and who knows what else. And technically, they had all agreed the night before to let it go, and not chase after the bandits. So, sure, maybe Varian would also be flooded with adrenaline and frustration if he’d been woken up that way.

But, to reiterate, he was  _ not _ responsible for the giant fire. And he didn’t really care for her implying that he was. 

Nuru seemed to take his lead in calming down. After all, between the two of them, she was the one who had been primed for diplomacy and courtly engagements. For a few minutes they sat in silence, save for the occasional wince and hiss from Varian as Nuru finished applying the antiseptic. How many puncture wounds were there, anyway? 

… Shit, how many teeth did dogs have? 

Eventually, Varian’s eyes drifted down to the map beside him. He was seated cross-legged on his bedroll, Nuru tending to his right arm while the map lay half-crumpled on the ground to his left. She had asked him to indicate which direction the bandits had come from, and where they had gone. The problem was that after the fire started, Varian hadn’t really had the capacity to focus on much else besides getting out of there.

By the time Nuru was wrapping the linen bandages around his forearm, Varian had calmed down enough for guilt to creep in. 

“I know we shouldn’t have snuck away from camp,” he admitted quietly, keeping his face turned away from Nuru so that he couldn’t see the annoyed ‘ _ no, really?’  _ look she gave him. “But we’re days from the next town and they took  _ all _ of Yong’s things and half of our food. And if that storm rolls in like you said it would, we can’t afford to be out here without enough shelter or provisions.”

“And how exactly did you plan on getting our supplies back once you arrived at a camp full of bandits? Who  _ apparently _ have a mean dog?”

Mild sheepishness found its way into Varian’s posture, pushing his shoulders up toward his ears. “To be fair, it was Hugo’s idea.”

“Hugo is a criminal, Varian, his solution to  _ everything _ is stupid and reckless.  _ You _ are Corona’s lead alchemist and royal engineer, who  _ supposedly _ helped to defeat Zhan Tiri before bringing automated plumbing to an entire city. You should be smarter than that.”

“He also deliberately tampers with volatile chemicals and acts surprised when things blow up,” Hugo said flatly, emerging from the treeline and stepping into the ring of light around their campfire. His clothes were darkened with ash and soot, and the wireframe of his glasses was bent in such a way that they sat skewed on his face. “Don’t try to pin this on me, farm boy, you were just as willing to do it.”

“They took Yong’s things,” Varian repeated more firmly, as though it were all the explanation they should require. 

“And we agreed he could share the few extra blankets we have until we get to the next town,” Nuru countered, the edge returning to her voice. “A bedroll and some clothing isn’t worth getting mauled by a dog!”

“‘Mauled’ is generous,” Hugo grumbled, examining the front of his clothing in the light in an attempt at brushing off soot. He seemed to finally notice his glasses were bent, because his scowl grew more annoyed and he redirected his focus to bending them back into shape. “A puppy teethed on him.”

His excessive downplaying went ignored. By the way he stood apart from the two of them and focused too intently on his easy-to-fix glasses, Varian got the impression that he was more worried then he let on. 

“And how did that fire start, then, if it wasn’t your genius plan to start it in the first place,” Nuru pressed, reaching the bone of Varian’s wrist and setting about tying the bandage off.

“They had an oil lamp, and Yong’s bag had explosives,” Hugo answered, stubbornly keeping his focus on his glasses and away from the two of them.

“And how did the oil lamp end up in Yong’s bag?”

“Geez, what is this, an inquisition?” Hugo turned a raised eyebrow toward the princess. “Why does it matter?”

Finished with her task, Nuru turned abruptly to face Hugo. “Because what’s left of that camp will smolder and smoke for days, and in case the two of you have forgotten, we have a whole crew of con artists hunting us after Hugo’s  _ last _ little stunt in Pittsford!” 

Varian lifted his arm to examine it, finally able to do so without the blood making his head spin. It ached, and the threat of infection was nowhere near eliminated. They’d have to make double time to the next town so that he could find a doctor. 

When he looked up, Hugo was staring at him. The instant their eyes met, the thief looked away. 

“Then we keep moving,” Hugo replied flatly. “It’s not like we had plans to stick around.”

“You are in _ furiating,” _ Nuru huffed, her shoulders rising in frustration. She climbed stiffly to her feet and stormed across the campsite to her bedroll, clearly intending to pack her things. “We can’t even wait until sunrise now, if those bandits are still out there after you burned down their hideout.”

“Oh, no, don’t do that on our account,” Hugo replied, feigning regret and sympathy. “You poor thing, how unfair!”

“Don’t be a jerk, Hugo,” Varian cut in, but as his adrenaline faded, so too did his energy or will to keep fighting. In fact, he could have curled onto his side then and there and gone to sleep. It had been too much, at the end of an already long day, and he wasn’t any more thrilled at the prospect of pressing on without sleep then Nuru was. 

“Don’t switch sides,  _ Varian,” _ Hugo cut back, still not looking at him. 

“There aren’t any sides. We made a decision, Nuru is rightly upset about it, we all have to deal with the consequences. Arguing with each other about this isn’t going to undo it,” Varian sighed, using his good arm to push himself up off of his bedroll. 

“Easy for you to say,” Nuru grumbled, yanking a strap hard to secure her own bedroll to the top of her pack. 

In an uncharacteristic show of cooperation, Hugo said nothing, instead turning toward his own bedroll to start packing. As Varian pulled up his backpack and took a knee at the foot of his bed to start rolling it up, he felt a presence appear at his side. 

Yong squat nervously next to him, his eyes still lingering uncertainly on Hugo’s and Nuru’s backs. Varian ignored him for a few beats, focusing instead on trying to get his bed neatly rolled with only one and a half functioning hands. When Yong leaned in and started to help him, the alchemist sighed. 

“It’s okay,” he said quietly so that only Yong could hear him. “Everyone is just tired. I’ll make it up to Nuru after we’ve gotten some sleep.”

Varian had learned to speak to Yong with the same cadence that his father had used when he was a child: steady, reassuring, and patient. It wasn’t always needed, but whenever Yong’s age would show through fear or uncertainty, Varian found himself putting on his Rapunzel Hat to comfort the kid. 

This time, it was clearly the exact tone the boy needed. He felt Yong curl a bit smaller at his side, and lean into him with the barest amount of pressure. “Thank you,” he whispered, taking over to roll the bedding the rest of the way up. “For doing that.”

Varian stilled and sat back on his ankles, dropping his hands into his lap. He watched quietly while Yong tied off his bedding, strapping it unto the top of Varian’s backpack. After a moment, the guilt and anger from only minutes before was gone, and at once, Varian knew he’d done the right thing. 

“Of course,” he said quietly. “I hope it wasn’t damaged.”

Yong glanced up at him and offered him a smile. “No, it isn’t. I’ll keep it on me from now on, though, I think.”

Varian’s smile warmed a bit. “Probably a good idea.”

Across the clearing, Hugo hefted his pack onto his shoulders. “Let’s get going already,” he sighed, trying to muster the energy needed for however long Nuru would have them hike. 

It broke Varian and Yong free of their private moment, and both of them stood and shouldered their own packs. Nuru doused the fire, and the four of them kicked about in the dirt to scatter the coals and bury them. Suddenly, the clearing was lit only by the light of a nearly-full moon.

“Hey,” Yong said when they were ready to leave, “what if you become a werewolf?”

Varian blinked, tired amusement pulling his mouth into a smile. Before he could respond, Hugo beat him to it.

“Then we’d have the honor of seeing the first pomeranian-themed werewolf,” the thief said, giving Varian a sly sideways smile.

Nuru, still frustrated with the turn their night had taken, was less amused. “I’m more worried about sepsis,” she said flatly. “Or rabies. Or mange. Or gangrene. Or ringworm. Or--”

“Please stop, oh my  _ god,” _ Varian groaned, panic bubbling in his stomach. “I said I was sorry, didn’t I?”

Beside him, Yong looked just as worried. “Maybe we should get moving,” he suggested meekly. 

-

By the time the sun was up, the forest had thinned out and the undergrowth had vanished. Moving down from the mountains, the group found themselves somewhere altogether more arid, surrounded by ponderosa pines with red bark and huge, tough needles. They had spread out as they walked, exhausted and looking for a covered place to finally sleep. So far, nothing offered them reasonable shelter.

Nuru was too tired to be angry, but annoyed? She could muster the strength to be annoyed. They had agreed not to go after Yong’s things, that the food was replaceable. What had been so important that Varian had suddenly changed his mind? Even Hugo was usually too self-preserving to run headfirst into a bandit camp in the dead of night.

Had it been hubris? The two of them were always butting heads; had they challenged each other to do it? Hugo could bait Varian into spats without a lot of difficulty, but Varian was still level-headed enough to know better than to do something so suicidal. 

Nuru couldn’t figure out what had changed. Maybe it was toxic masculinity, though Varian had never exhibited that before. It didn’t matter; she was exhausted, and resentful, and annoyed, and she didn’t really  _ want _ to understand why they did it. They were all paying the price now, and she had every right to be upset about that.

Hugo didn’t look even the slightest bit remorseful. He’d kept mostly to himself on their march, though she had caught him slowing down more than once for Varian and Yong to catch up. The younger two, taking up the rear, seemed to be having a harder and harder time keeping pace.

Long stretches of monotonous travel like this were usually where Yong shined. He’d help pass the time with thousands of questions, or exaggerated stories about things he’d done. But now, he was walking with slumped shoulders, kicking a pinecone along and staying fairly quiet. She could hear his voice, a series of uncertain questions, but he didn’t sound especially enthusiastic.

At the lead of the party, Nuru stopped and turned to let all three of them catch up to her. Hugo didn’t acknowledge her or speed up, his hands stuck in his pockets stubbornly. The princess narrowed her eyes in annoyance before moving her gaze further back.

That was when she noticed that Yong was keeping a slow pace for  _ Varian. _ Even from the distance she was at, the Coronan was moving with the deliberate slowness of a drunk who was trying very hard not to appear drunk. Each step looked like he was about to stop, but he kept going, nodding occasionally and muttering a reply to one of Yong’s questions. 

Hugo and Yong looked tired, but Varian looked  _ exhausted. _ He was holding his arm close to his stomach, as if shielding it.

Gradually, as the group collected where Nuru had stopped, her annoyance turned into something altogether less pleasant: worry. 

“Varian,” she said carefully, “are you alright?”

Varian stopped just a few feet from her and drew in a deep breath, blinking owlishly as though he were coming out of a fugue. “Hm? Oh. Yeah, just tired,” he answered, his voice unusually distant. 

“You look like shit,” Hugo said bluntly, foregoing any attempt at delicate observation. Nuru shot him a sideways glare. 

“We all look like shit,” Varian countered, matching her expression. “None of us have slept since yesterday.”

“Nuru slept, technically,” Yong supplied, his voice growing quieter with each word as he realized his contribution was not helpful. The princess ignored all three of them and took a step toward Varian. 

“How is your arm,” she asked, eyeing the bandages. There was the barest ruddy stain through the course cloth. Varian did not remove his forearm from where it was pressed against his middle.

“It’s just sore,” he allowed. “I’m sure after some sleep it’ll feel better, but we can’t stop here.”

He wasn’t wrong. The trees were spaced at least ten feet apart, and there was no undergrowth to speak up spare the occasional scratchy shrub. If anyone was following them, they’d be easy to spot from a distance. 

“If it’s infected, we need to clean it out again,” Nuru tried, but almost as soon as she had gotten the words out, Hugo’s water skein appeared in the middle of the group. The thief held it out to Varian with a flat expression on his face, not quite looking the younger alchemist in the eye. 

“Stay hydrated. There should be a trading post about an hour from here, they have rooms we can crash in. Can you make it?” The thief shook the skein impatiently, and Varian took it from him carefully. 

“Yeah,” he answered, “thanks.”

Nuru looked to Hugo, who abruptly turned away and kept walking, both hands gripping his backpack straps tightly. 

“Do you think the trading post sells bedding,” Yong asked, looking from Hugo’s retreating pack to Nuru, and then to Varian. 

Nuru sighed. “I’m sure they do,” she said, turning to start walking again. This time, she kept her pace a bit slower, aware that Varian was suddenly trying to move twice as fast as before. Perhaps he had only just then realized how far he’d trailed behind.

“And a new backpack,” Yong continued. “Because I don’t have one anymore, because… you know. Also, can you maybe sew a secret pocket into my coat, Nuru?”

The princess blinked. “What? Why would you need that?”

The youngest of the group blinked, suddenly looking uncertain. “Uh,” he began awkwardly, glancing at Varian. 

“Because it’s Yong,” the alchemist answered tiredly, though not unreasonable in his tone. “Last week he wanted me to make him a firework launcher with ‘as many buttons as possible’.”

Nuru glanced between them for only a moment before sighing and readjusting her own pack. “Yeah,” she agreed, “that’s fair.”

-

The trading post did, in fact, sell bedrolls and backpacks.

Hugo’s estimation that it was an hour away was off, but only because of how slow they were walking by the end of it. The building was nestled between a few huge rock outcroppings, yucca sprouting in front of the horse hitches from an apparent lack of visitors. Still, a cold snowmelt creek ran along the rockbed nearby, and a trail of smoke snaked upward from the rusted chimney pipe. Rural, but inhabited. 

Better than trying to set up camp without any cover.

Hugo went inside without any hesitation, which made it easier for the others to follow. Nuru stopped on the porch and watched with open wariness as Varian climbed the three steps, needing his good arm to help him up the railing. He was breathing harder than he should have been. 

Inside, the smell of dust and antiques greeted them. Hugo was already at the counter, exchanging a small pouch of coins for the key to a room upstairs. Strange, Nuru thought, considering getting Hugo to pay his share of anything was always on par with pulling teeth.

The man behind the counter looked like he’d been there before the trading post had even been built. He handed Hugo the key with a leathery hand and then paused, his eyes watching on the rest of them.

“That young lady ain’t lookin’ so good,” he said, his voice as creaky as an unoiled door hinge. 

Nuru blinked, looking at the old man for an uncertain moment. Was she supposed to be offended by that? How did she look any worse than any of her companions? In fact, she was the only one who had gotten any sleep, which put her leagues ahead of--

“That’s a boy,” Hugo corrected flatly, “and he got bit by a dog. Do you have any medicine?”

“A boy,” the man repeated, leaning over the counter and squinting in their vague direction. Only then did Nuru notice the cloudy white of his eyes. “Too pretty to be a boy.”

“And under any other circumstance, I would be loving every second of this,” Hugo replied. “But we need medicine. Do you have any, or not?”

Still trying to suss out if Hugo was lying, the old man slowly turned his attention away from where Nuru and Varian stood and scratched at his chin. “A dog bite, you say? Hm… I have some antitoxin that might help. ‘Fraid we don’t keep much on hand.”

“Anything will help,” Nuru said, stepping forward. “What do we owe you?”

“Hm?” The old man glanced at her. “Well bless my stars, tell me  _ that’s _ not a girl.”

Nuru felt her expression flatten with annoyance, but she forced a polite expression back on anyway. “I am, sir.”

“Ha,” the old man huffed, pointing at Hugo, “try to trick  _ me _ why don’t you. Travelling with two pretty girls is dangerous, but you can’t fool this old man.”

“Oh my god,” Varian groaned quietly behind them, too exhausted to be property upset by the exchange. 

“How much for the antitoxin,” Hugo repeated flatly, leaning over the counter in some vaguely intimidating gesture. 

“Oh, have it,” the old man replied. “Consider it a consultation for having to travel with this liar.”

Nuru stepped up and plucked the offered vial out of the old man’s hand before Hugo could react. “Thank you sir,” she said, laying on the gratitude as she began to steer the thief toward the narrow staircase across the room. “We won’t be any trouble at all!”

Hugo let her push him until they arrived at the bottom step. There, he stopped short and stepped aside, turning toward Varian and gesturing at the stairs. “Ladies first.”

“Eat me,” Varian grumbled, storming past him with what little energy he still had. On his heel, Yong looked between the three of them with open confusion.

“What’s wrong with being pretty,” he asked. Nuru sighed, a fond smile pulling at the corner of her mouth as she followed after them. Behind her, Hugo started up the steps, tossing and catching the room key with ease.

“Nothing,” she answered. “Hugo is just jealous.”

-

Varian had insisted on cleaning up before doing anything else. He smelled like smoke and stress, and while neither were especially unusual for him, he didn’t want to dream about burning bandit camps or snarling dogs.

The upstairs of the trading post consisted of one narrow hallway, three rooms, and a communal washroom. Varian moved through them like a ghost, hardly aware of time passing as he freshened up. Upon returning to their room, he found that Nuru had already set out her first aid kit on the small table by the window. She didn’t have to say anything to prompt him to join her.

Varian turned his eyes away as she set about removing the bandage, but even without looking, he knew it wasn’t good. He could hear her inhale too fast, could see Hugo’s lingering look of concern. 

“Is it bad,” he asked, voice tight with anticipation and worry.

“It’s not great,” Hugo answered.

“It could be worse,” Nuru concluded. “It’s definitely infected, though. The antitoxin should help, and I’ll clean it again.”

The thought was not a pleasant one, but it was made worse by the way Nuru said it. Her usual patience and sympathy were gone, replaced by tight words and a hard tone. Varian shrank a bit, guilt bubbling back up. 

He was too tired to be angry, not like he was the night prior when he’d first returned with a bloody arm and soot on his clothes. Then, adrenaline had fueled him, defensive in the face of her accusations. Now, Varian hardly had the energy to sit up straight, let alone be angry. 

And it was his fault, after all. He was the one who had decided to go after Yong’s things. The only reason he’d been bitten and not Hugo was because Varian didn’t actually have any talent at sneaking around and stealing. He wasn’t a thief. 

For a few moments, the room was silent and tense. Varian winced and flinched and hissed in pain as Nuru cleaned the infected dog bite, her gestures just a little too quick, just a tad too rough. After a few rough jabs of antiseptic, Varian’s desire to not be in pain got the better of him.

“Can you go any easier,” he asked, his voice tight. 

“I wouldn’t have to go at  _ all _ if you guys had just stayed in camp,” Nuru shot back, so suddenly that it was clear she had been struggling not to say it on her own.

Hugo stood upright from where he was leaning against the wall. “So you’re taking it out on Varian?”

“I’m not taking it out on anyone,” she replied curtly. “But an apology wouldn’t hurt! We agreed we’d let it go, and you guys still went off and put yourselves in danger, and for what? Was it a dare? Was it some elaborate way for the two of you to measure your di-”

“It was for me,” Yong said, so abruptly and so loudly that they all startled and turned to look at him.

He was sitting on the edge of one of the beds, hunched forward nervously. He was holding something small in his grip.

“Yong, bedrolls can be replaced,” Nuru sighed, her frustration only barely lessening. “You’re not responsible for these two morons on their constant need to prove who’s the best.”

“It’s not the bedroll,” Yong insisted, looking up. His expression was torn, eyes flickering between Nuru and Varian’s arm. “Or the backpack, or the food or anything. It’s  _ this.” _

He held up the small item for them to see. At a glance, it looked like a small square of tin, but in the low light, it was clear there was some sort of stain on it.

Varian took a slow, deep breath. “You don’t have to show it if you don’t want to, Yong,” he said carefully. 

“I want to,” the youngest responded. He stood from the bed and started toward them, stopping just shy of the table. He stared down at the item in his hands, a small smile pulling at his face. “It’s a picture of my family,” he admitted, as though it were some holy secret. 

He turned it toward the light, and Nuru’s expression softened with curiosity and surprise. Hugo stepped away from the wall and leaned behind Varian to see it, unable to help himself.

The small piece of tin had the exact likeness of his family frozen on it. The two adults in the photo looked exactly as Varian remembered them, both patient and poised. There were several children posed around them, all equally serious except for a much younger version of Yong, who was grinning ear to ear. His face was slightly blurred, as though he’d been unable to stop moving.

“It’s called a photograph. Varian said it’s a ‘tintype’,” Yong explained, watching their faces carefully. “We had to sit for  _ forever _ for them to take it. It’s really important to me.”

Across the table from where Varian sat, Nuru deflated. All of the frustration left her shoulders, realization and guilt settling in instead. “... And this was in your backpack when the bandits took it,” she guessed, voice quiet. 

Yong nodded, looking like a child who was about to be scolded. “I didn’t want anyone to be in danger if we went to get it back, and… I mean, it’s just a thing, I guess. But when Varian asked me what was wrong, I told him. The next thing I knew they were coming back into camp and Varian was hurt.”

Nuru turned to look at the alchemist in question, a kind of wary understanding forming in her eyes. “Why didn’t you just tell me that,” she asked, though the fight was gone from her voice.

Varian shrugged. He didn’t have a good answer, only that he’d gotten the sense that Yong felt responsible for what had happened, and he didn’t want the kid to be upset. 

“If it makes you feel better, he didn’t tell me either,” Hugo chimed in, flicking Varian’s ear. He ignored the younger alchemist when he flinched and swatted his hand away. “I was just down to ruin those bandits’ night.”

“So it’s my fault,” Yong concluded. “If I hadn’t said anything about the picture, Varian wouldn’t have gotten Hugo and gone to get it back, and he wouldn’t be hurt.”

“Yong,” Varian chided, “it’s  _ not _ your fault. I don’t regret going. If it was a picture of my parents, I’d want it back too. And something that rare can’t exactly be replaced. It’s okay.”

“But your arm,” Yong argued, pointing at Varian’s injury, which the alchemist pointedly refused to look at.

“My arm will be fine,” he countered. Before Yong could keep arguing the point, Nuru leaned forward. 

“It will be,” she said. “And we’ll stop arguing about it. Thank you for telling us.”

The boy didn’t look any more comforted or convinced. He held the photograph close, looking down at it for comfort, or reassurance, or whatever it was that he needed in that moment. Seeing this, Nuru sighed, blowing the last of her frustration away. 

“Hey, look at it this way,” she reasoned. “That photograph is even more special now, right? Because Varian rescued it.”

Yong looked up, his interest only mildly piqued by the idea. 

“Excuse you,” Hugo cut in, “I might not have known that was what Goggles was looking for, but I helped too. And I did it  _ without _ getting mauled by a dog.”

“What happened to ‘teethed on by a puppy’,” Varian replied flatly, looking over his shoulder at the thief. Hugo shrugged and waved him off. 

“That was before I saw how it looks now. Maybe you  _ will _ turn into a werewolf.”

Varian scowled at him, but it only lasted as long as it took for Yong to start laughing. “A girl werewolf, apparently.”

The tension in the air shattered, relief freeing them from the frustration they’d been carrying for the last several hours. Hugo laughed, high-fiving Yong while Varian flashed both of them with a rude gesture.

“Alright, alright,” Nuru said, smiling in spite of herself. “Buzz off so I can finish bandaging the werewolf bite. Then we can all get some sleep.”

“Oh my god  _ yes,” _ Hugo heaved, still chuckling. “I call the bed by the door.”

“Hey, no fair,” Yong whined, “you always get the bed closest to the door!”

“Yes,” Hugo agreed, “so I can always beat Miss Beauty Queen to the washroom in the morning.”

“And use the hot water,” Yong said accusingly, following after Hugo toward the beds. As they carried on arguing, Varian leaned back in his chair and flinched when Nuru went back to work on his arm.

“Okay,” she said quietly, so that only he could hear her. “Next time, lead with the reasonable justification, yeah?”

Varian watched as Yong swung a pillow at Hugo, who laughed and blocked it easily. “Yeah,” he agreed. “That’s fair.”


End file.
